Brassiere and fabric therefor



June 8, 1965 G. M. KING 3,187,754

BRASSIERE AND FABRIC THEREFOR Filed Feb. 26. 1962 IN VENTOR.

GILBERT M. KING BY ATTORNEYS United States Patent This invention relatesprimarily to a brassiere and a fabric from which the brassiere is made.

In the formation of brassieres a lace fabric is usually incorporated inthe brassiere, and advantageously the fabric is formed from syntheticfiber such as nylon which may be molded into a form to provide the cupsof the brassiere. This molding permanently elongates parts of the fabricso that the cups of the brassiere maintain their shape after the moldingoperation. In order to make a lace fabric sufiiciently heavy forbrassiere purposes, I have provided a construction of lace fabric whichtakes the place of plural plies of fabrics heretofore used inbrass-ieres, and such a fabric is disclosed in my co-pendingapplication, Serial No. 170,159, now Patent No. 3,088,362, in which Ihave utilized plural warp threads which are bound to the bobbins as theyextend laterally of the general lengthwise extent of the bobbins. At thesame time a pattern utilizing gimp or filling threads and outlinethreads may be provided on such a base fabric.

One of the Objects of this invention is to form a lace fabric on amachine such as a Leavers lace machine in which the pattern formed bygimp or filling threads may be superimposed upon a base fabric and whichfabric will be in a form which will enable the heavier pattern a to beutilized as the under or lower portion of the cups of a brassiere sothat when the'molding of the nylon fabric takes place, the reinforced orheavier portion of the fabric may be located along the lower portion ofthe brassiere cups and thus provide support where it is desired whileleaving a plainer, unsupported and lighterweight fabric above where thesupport is not necessary.

A further object of the invention is to provide a brassiere from arelatively heavy lace fabric which will have a support along the lowerportion .of the cups while leaving the upper part of the cupsunsupported and of a plain pattern.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certainnovel features of construction as will be more fully described andparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a brassiere incorporating thisinvention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmental portion of a piece of lace fabric showing myreinforced part and nonreinforced part in their general relationship inthe fabric;

FIG 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but showing a slightly differentreinforcing pattern;

FIG. 4 is a section showing the reinforcing area and the nonreinforcingarea;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 but showing the fabric after it hasbeen molded to provide a cup.

With reference to the drawings, in FIG. 2 designates generally a flatpiece of lace fabric with the lengthwise direction thereof extendinghorizontally of the paper. The fabric comprises a base portion 11 whichmay be constructed as shown in greater detail in the co-pendingapplication which I have referred to above. This base material 11extends lengthwise of the fabric and Widthwise of the fabric its entirewidth, while superimposed upon this base material there is a reinforcingarea designated generally 12 and comprising in this instance lengthwisestripes l3 and lateral stripes 14 formed by outline threads 15 and gimpthreads 16 between the outline threads, all superimposed upon the basefabric and intermeshed or locked to the base fabric by the gimp orfilling threads extending under and over the bobbin threads and lyingbetween the back or middle warps and front warps while the outlinethreads tie in under the bobbins or over the warps.

However, the particular form of tying the pattern into the base is notnew and does not play a particular part of this invention.

The striped reinforcing pattern above referred to extends only. a partof the width of the fabric leaving plane portions such as 11 and 11' andso forth in repeats intermediate these striped portions. The stripedportion, however, will be of a sufficient width so that it will be alittle greater than one half of the vertical dimension of the cup of thebrassiere which is to be formed. In some cases instead of the stripe 13being straight, the stripe may be wavy as at 17 in a plurality oflengthwise extending formations connected by lateral stripes 14 as shownin FIG. 2. The particular pattern which is provided in this reinforcingarea may be widely varied and may take many different forms, the generalthought being that some reinforcing portion will be placed on the base11 so that it may be strengthened in an area sufficient to provide areinforcing portion for the lower part of the cup of the brassiere.

The brassiere which is the subject of this invention is esignatedgenerally 20 as seen in FIG. 1 and comprises two cups 211, each of whichis formed by molding so as to stretch the nylon threads of the fabric atthe portions of the cups into substantially the form as shown in crosssection in FIG. 5. The line of demarcation between the base fabric suchas 11 or 11' and the reinforcing pattern 12 will have its upper edge 22disposed at substantially the midpoint of the cup projection (see FIG. 5leaving the reinforcing portion 12 along the lower portion of the cupand one plain area 11 above this line which area in its molded form isdesignated 23 as the unreinforced or undecorated plain portion of thebrassiere cup. The area 11' as shown in FIG. 2 is also of plane orundecorated part,

and the next reinforced area will be a repeat for another brassiere.

In the formation of the brassiere the cups will be formed in the fabricat substantially the desired distance apart and then the fabric will bedrawn in and sewn along the lines 25, 25 so as to shape the brassiere asdesired, while reinforcing pieces 27 will be sewed on as at 28 tofurther reinforce and shape the brassiere as desired. Other pieces 29may be positioned for extending about the body while shoulder straps 30may be provided with adjusting buckles 31 for extending over theshoulders.

I claim:

1. A brassiere comprising a piece of fabric having a cup molded therein,said fabric being a single unitary piece of base material formed fromintermeshed threads with a reinforcing portion superimposed thereonalong only the lower portion of the cup provided by a concentration ofsaid intermeshed threads.

2. A brassiere as in claim 1 wherein said reinforcing portion is in theform of an ornamental design.

3. A brassiere as in claim 1 wherein said fabric is of laceconstruction.

4. A fabric for use in brassieres comprising a body portion ofsubstanital length and width of threads intermeshed in lace constructionand reinforcing stripes superimposed thereon and formed of threadsintermeshed with the threads of the body, extending lengthwise of thefabric and at spaced intervals laterally thereof.

5. A fabric as in claim 4 wherein the reinforcing portion is formed by agreater concentration of threads intermeshed with the body portion andsuperimposed thereon.

6. A fabric as in claim 4 wherein the reinforcing portion is formed by agreater concentration of threads intermeshed with the body portion andsuperimposed thereon in an ornamental pattern efiect.

, 4- References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,413,9701/47 Hawley 161--70 2,981,139 4/61 Sutter 87-4 3,021,844 2/62 Flagg eta1. 128-463 3,064,329 11/62 Westberg et a1. 28-74 ADELE M. EAGER,Primary Examiner.

10 LOUIS R. PRINCE, Examiner.

1. A BRASSIERE COMPRISING A PIECE OF FABRIC HAVING A CUP MOLDED THEREIN,SAID FABRIC BEING A SINGLE UNITARY PIECE OF BASE MATERIAL FORMED FROMINTERMESHED THREADS WITH A REINFORCING PORTION SUPERIMPOSED THEREONALONG ONLY THE